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Corruption

EfectoCocuyo has fresh details on several companies connected to disgraced, jailed former Venezuelan Soccer Federation chief Rafael Esquivel that were handled by a small group of relatives and associates. According to EC’s report, Esquivel himself is personally involved in four Florida-registered companies: La Isla Corp., Esqui-care Center, Grupo Esquivel and Grupo Los Robles. Esquivel’s nephew, Luis Damián…

Do you remember Rafael Esquivel? You know, our long-serving football caudillo that got busted almost two months ago in Zurich for corruption? The New York Times has details on the eight properties he owns in South Florida. Well, they actually belong to several holding companies but he still has direct ties to them… like the little fact…

Venezuela has always been corrupt – at least ever since I’ve been around. But it seems as if corruption has exploded in the last year, or two. If we are to go by the outlandish stories one hears, then whatever you might have thought about corruption a few years ago is now peanuts. One of…

Sometimes, buying newspapers in mysterious ways or depriving them of their most basic resource to keep running isn’t enough. Sometimes, the hegemony needs a classic newspaper closure. That’s what La Guaira newspaper La Verdad de Vargas went through last Friday, when several local and national government agencies decided to make a visit to its newsroom. Allegedly, the…

Back in April, Juan Cristobal wrote about a big corruption investigation in Brazil. Uncovered by the magazine Época, the story involved local conglomerate Odebrecht, state development bank BNDES, and a large loan promised in 2009 by then President Lula Da Silva to the comandante presidente for the construction of Metro Los Teques. Both Odebrecht and BNDES formally…

The FIFA scandal continues to dominate headlines worldwide, particularly after Sepp Blatter announced on Tuesday he would step down after being reelected for a fifth term four days earlier. Venezuela is right at the center of the scandal, as Rafael Esquivel, the head of our football federation for the last 27 years, was one of the…

Huge news out of Zurich today, where several high ranking members of FIFA were arrested for alleged corruption and money laundering. One of them is Rafael Esquivel, chairman of the Venezuelan Football Federation (FVF) for the last 27 years and first Vice-President of the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) since March. You read that right, twenty…